It's Nice to Be Back!

Whew! After a long hiatus, I've finally taken some time off to write in here. So much has happened since November of last year. Well, my sister has gotten married last April 2 and it was nothing short of spectacular. Haha! Let me tell you, they had tons of photographers that day and if you have seen them, you'd think that my sister and my brother-in-law were celebrities being hounded by paparazzi!

Anyway, congratulations and best wishes to the newlyweds are in order. As for me, I have a new job. It's so new that I haven't even started yet. Haha! And I owe it all to Him. Really. I find it humbling to be blessed so much and I felt that it was even a miracle at all that I passed.

I'm posting here a prayer to the Holy Spirit as well as a Novena of Confidence to the Sacred Heart of Jesus because I found these two prayers to be really effective when you want something badly from God:

Holy Spirit, Thou who make me see everything and show me the way to reach my ideal. Thou who give the divine gift to forgive and forget the wrong that is done to me and who are in all instances of my life with me. I, in this short dialogue, want to thank You for everything and confirm once more that I never want to be separated from You no matter how great the material desires may be. I want to be with You and my loved ones in Your perpetual glory. Amen.

(Person must pray for 3 consecutive days without stating one's wish. After the 3rd day, your wish will be granted no matter how difficult it may be. Promise to publish this, as soon as your favor has been granted.)

Novena of Confidence to the Sacred Heart of Jesus
(This novena is made every hour for nine consecutive hours on the same day or it may be made once every day for nine consecutive days.)

O Jesus, You have said: "Ask and you shall receive, seek and you shall find, knock and it shall be opened to you," by the intercession of Mary, Your Holy Mother, I call on You, I seek from You and beg of You to listen favorably to my request.

(Mention your petition)

O Jesus, You have said: "Whatever you ask My Father in My name, He will give you," I humbly and fervently beg from Your Heavenly Father in Your name and, through the intercession of Your Most Holy Mother Mary, to grant me the favor I am asking.

(Mention your petition)

O Jesus, You have said: "Heaven and earth shall pass away by but My words will never pass away," through the intercession of Mary, Your Most Holy Mother, I am most firmly confident that my petition will be granted.

My Jesus, Lord of my soul, You promised that Your Divine Heart would be the Ocean of Mercy for the needy who trust in You, I firmly believe that You can grant to me what I am asking even if it would require a miracle to do it. Where should I go knocking but at the door of Your heart? "Blessed are they who hope in You."

O Jesus, I confide to Your Heart.
(this pain, that soul, this intention)

Look at it and do what Your Heart dictates. Let Your Heart act accordingly.
O Jesus, I count on You. I confide in You. I surrender and consecrate myself to You. I feel secure in You.

(Say One Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be to the Father)

Sacred Heart of Jesus, I trust in You
(Repeat ten times with great fervor.)

O good Jesus, You have said: "If you wish to please Me, confide in Me. If you wish to please Me more, trust in Me all the more. If you wish to please Me immensely, have an immense trust in Me." Increase my confidence in You. Let me put all my trust in You. In You, O Lord, let me not be confounded forever. Amen.

I want to share these two prayers to everyone who needs God's help and believe me, He does listen.

On Life and Love Quotes

Life Updates

These past few days, I've been feeling a bit under the weather and my head was even acting up last night. Albeit feeling sick earlier in the day because I had a hard time sleeping, I just couldn't say no to a shopping trip in Trinoma. After being cooped at home for so long, I felt that I deserved to be pampered a little.

We started the afternoon at Conti's, where we had lunch. It being a pastry shop and a restaurant all in one, we couldn't resist having a slice of their Mango Bravo cakes. Of course, it was heavenly. :) After eating, we then proceeded to hit the shops. Since it was the last day of the mallwide sale, people went there in droves. We even saw Aica and her mom among the many shoppers.

The main thing that I was looking for yesterday was a long, flat wallet but even Girbaud disappointed me. When we looked for clothes, somehow, I just can't seem to find one that screamed "pick me!" I did buy new things but I am not satisfied - not by a long shot. I would probably have to go back in the coming days to search for new clothes and for my new wallet, too. Now, who'd like to go and shop with me? And please don't contact me if you have no patience at all for shopping. :)

On to Love Quotes

My friends back in high school know that I collect quotes. To me, they are little grains of wisdom found in the simplest words. I stumbled across both Tagalog and English quotes in a website and being a sucker for romance, I compiled the quotes here so that you guys would get to read them, too. I was surprised that Bob Ong's books contained romantic quotes so don't be shocked to see some of them here. Enjoy!

"Sometimes, our heart is like a cup filled up with love and compassion for only one person, but there is another person like the saucer underneath the cup that catches the spilled love and never let it go to waste."

"It's not the break-up that hurts most, it's the post-trauma that follows it. It's the little things that you know wouldn't have meaning anymore. It's waking up and checking your phone for the message that isn't there. It's like starting your life over again and you just have no idea where to begin."

****

From Bob Ong:

"Bakit ka magpaparamdam sa taong hindi marunong makaramdam? Wag kang magpakatanga, sa taong hindi marunong magpahalaga. Matuto kang sumuko at mang-iwan, kung lagi ka namang sinasaktan. Imbis na magtanong ka ng "Hindi pa ba sapat?" Bakit hindi mo na lang kalimutan ang lahat? Kung alam mong binabalewala ka na, tanggapin mong nagsasawa na sya. Wag kang magpadala sa salitang "sorry" at "ayokong mawala ka" kung totoo yun,patunayan nya."

"Huwag mong bitawan ang bagay na hindi mo kayang makitang hawak ng iba."

"Huwag mong hawakan kung alam mong bibitawan mo lang."

"Huwag na huwag ka hahawak kapag alam mong may hawak ka na."

"Ayokong nasasanay sa mga bagay na pwede namang wala sa buhay ko."

****

"A perfect partner in life is someone you can be with and talk about anything without realizing that the day was over..someone who will always listen and feel twice the joy or pain you're going through..When you start to feel that "connection," never let it go because there is more to companionship than love..In the end, when all else fails and are consumed, you will always hold on to those times when you don't even need to hear the words "I love you."

"Apologizing doesn’t mean that you are wrong and the other is right. Sometimes you just value the relationship much more than your personal ego."

"A man worthy of your tears will never make you use them."

"I can't give you the sun, the moon and the stars, but I promise I'll be beneath them, laying down with you."

"One day you will ask me which is more important, my life or yours. I will say mine and you will walk away not knowing that you are my life." -K.Gibran

"Watching him walk out of my life doesn't make me bitter or cynical about love it just made me realize that if i wanted so much to be with the wrong person..how beautiful can it be when the right one comes along.."

Personal favorites:

"All relationships have one law: never make your loved one feel alone while you are there."

"I want to be with someone who knows what they have when they have me."

"I can always take care of myself but still, I want to meet the person who can prove to me that..I can't.."

"Impossibilities become possible if there is love."

"They say, we're too old to play hide & seek..but if I had a chance, I'd give anything just to hear someone say..I found you.."

^_^

Keep Moving Forward

First off, Meet the Robinsons is among my favorite films and no, this is not a movie review. The entire film was centered on the mantra "Keep Moving Forward," hence the title of this post. I just think that it's a fitting description of what I should do, having found myself at a crossroad at this point in my life.

I have always been an optimist and I do think that things happen for a reason. Also, I am not a big believer of regret. I honestly think that I would never regret something that once made me smile as well as something that once held a special place in my heart.

To move forward is to let go of the past and look forward to a better future. As they say, the future is only as bright as you imagine it to be - and what could be holding you back is yourself. We are sometimes afraid to let go of things or even people. But we also need to understand that to save ourselves from insanity, we have to release old memories so that we could make some room for new ones. We would only be able to fully move forward if we just accept things that we don't want to happen, learn things that we don't want to know, and most importantly, let go of memories that we think we cannot live without.

One of my college friends recently asked me to go with her and work abroad early next year. She was supposed to fly this year but decided to go on the first quarter of 2009 instead. I have to admit that I have never seriously thought of working abroad as an option. Until now.

To be honest, I am not quite sure where my life is headed. Maybe lady luck is on another country, I don't know. I told my friend that I would think about it first and get back to her. I'm a bit frustrated at myself, for I am not even sure what it is that I want anymore.

It is terribly tempting to explore new things, discover new places, and meet new friends. Does it mean that I am ready to leave everything behind and work abroad? Of that, I'm not sure yet. It could be exciting; after all, I've never been out of the country and I'll be with a close friend. But I'll just have to play it by ear because I'm still praying for it.

My approaching birthday as well as the Christmas season make me happy, to say the least. I am always excited about Christmas that I do not give much thought about my birthday at all. This year, a friend of mine told me that he'll surprise me on that day, so let's just wait and see. :)

And oh, don't forget to watch Twilight on the 26th. Catch you all later! ^_^

Closing Cycle by Paulo Coelho

One always has to know when a stage comes to an end.

If we insist on staying longer than the necessary time, we lose the happiness and the meaning of the other stages we have to go through. Closing cycles, shutting doors, ending chapters – whatever name we give it, what matters is to leave in the past the moments of life that have finished.

Did you lose your job? Has a loving relationship come to an end? Did you leave your parents’ house? Gone to live abroad? Has a long-lasting friendship ended all of a sudden?

You can spend a long time wondering why this has happened. You can tell yourself you won’t take another step until you find out why certain things that were so important and so solid in your life have turned into dust, just like that.

But such an attitude will be awfully stressing for everyone involved: your parents, your husband or wife, your friends, your children, your sister, everyone will be finishing chapters, turning over new leaves, getting on with life, and they will all feel bad seeing you at a standstill.

None of us can be in the present and the past at the same time, not even when we try to understand the things that happen to us. What has passed will not return: we cannot for ever be children, late adolescents, sons that feel guilt or rancor towards our parents, lovers who day and night relive an affair with someone who has gone away and has not the least intention of coming back.

Things pass, and the best we can do is to let them really go away.

That is why it is so important (however painful it may be!) to destroy souvenirs, move, give lots of things away to orphanages, sell or donate the books you have at home. Everything in this visible world is a manifestation of the invisible world, of what is going on in our hearts – and getting rid of certain memories also means making some room for other memories to take their place.

Let things go. Release them. Detach yourself from them. Nobody plays this life with marked cards, so sometimes we win and sometimes we lose. Do not expect anything in return, do not expect your efforts to be appreciated, your genius to be discovered, your love to be understood. Stop turning on your emotional television to watch the same program over and over again, the one that shows how much you suffered from a certain loss: that is only poisoning you, nothing else.

Nothing is more dangerous than not accepting love relationships that are broken off, work that is promised but there is no starting date, decisions that are always put off waiting for the "ideal moment." Before a new chapter is begun, the old one has to be finished: tell yourself that what has passed will never come back. Remember that there was a time when you could live without that thing or that person – nothing is irreplaceable, a habit is not a need. This may sound so obvious, it may even be difficult, but it is very important.

Closing cycles. Not because of pride, incapacity or arrogance, but simply because that no longer fits your life. Shut the door, change the record, clean the house, shake off the dust.

Stop being who you were, and change into who you are.

Fallen for Cullen

You must know by now that I am addicted to Twilight. And isn't it funny that the opening of the Twilight movie would fall on my birthday? I haven't felt this kind of excitement since Harry Potter. Heck, my friends and I would cut our classes back in college just to be the first to watch the initial HP movies. Haha!

My sister doesn't really like the idea of Robert Pattinson playing the beautiful Edward Cullen. She claims he's not beautiful. Well, I guess it's a bit weird to see Rob as Edward without seeing Cedric Diggory from Harry Potter.

Here is Rob Pattinson as Edward:





























Here he is as Cedric:

























Whenever I watch the trailer of Twilight, I can actually see Edward in Robert Pattinson. He may not be as beautiful as the one in the book but there's definite chemistry between him and Kristen Stewart as Bella. I honestly can't wait to see the movie as well as celebrate being a year older. :)

Here are some of my favorite quotes from the Twilight Saga and I hope the actors would be able to give them justice in the movies:

1. "Do you really have any idea how important you are to me? Any concept at all of how much I love you?"

"I know how much I love you."

"You compare one small tree to the entire forest."

2.  "Look after my heart---I've left it with you"

3.  "When life offers you a dream so far beyond any of your expectations, it's not reasonable to grieve when it comes to an end."

4.  "I have to be with you. It's the only way I can live."

5.  "I like the night. Without the dark, we'd never see the stars."

6. "Before you, Bella, my life was like a moonless night. Very dark, but there were stars—points of light and reason… And then you shot across my sky like a meteor. Suddenly everything was on fire; there was brilliancy, there was beauty. When you were gone, when the meteor had fallen over the horizon, everything went black. Nothing had changed, but my eyes were blinded by the light. I couldn't see the stars anymore. And there was no more reason for anything."

7. "I can't live in a world where you don't exist."

8.  "For almost ninety years I’ve walked among my kind, and yours...all the time thinking I was complete in myself, not realizing what I was seeking. And not finding anything, because you weren’t alive yet."

Romantic, aren't they? So don't forget to mark the 26th of November on your calendars and troop down to the cinemas to watch Twilight. I sure hope it lives up to all this hype. ;)